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Children begin by loving their parents; then they judge them; rarely, do they forgive them. But blame is for G-d and the small children we must keep from going insane. Leanne discovered she couldn’t have them. And I had married into insanity. Indeed, mothers may be fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own…https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/children-begin-by-loving-their-parents-then-they-judge-them-rarely-do-they-forgive-them-but-blame-is-for-g-d-and-the-small-children-we-must-keep-from-going-insane-leanne-discovered-she-couldn/
https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/children-begin-by-loving-their-parents-then-they-judge-them-rarely-do-they-forgive-them-but-blame-is-for-g-d-and-the-small-children-we-must-keep-from-going-insane-leanne-discovered-she-couldn/#respondWed, 28 Jun 2017 00:31:11 +0000http://ydrewis.wordpress.com/?p=1756Continue reading →]]>With just a tad of a snide edge in her Australian accent she wondered about my butterfly pins, as in “What’s up with them?” At the same time her long fingers lightly examined the broach arrangement of the colorful flying insects displayed on my chest. And then she pointed to the bracelet adorning my right wrist.

At first I wanted to dismiss the inquiry… as usual. To shrug it off. And simply provide my standard offering about metamorphosis: That we sometimes experience dramatic events that alter our lives forever.

And that was going to be that. Nothing more. Norhing less.

But then, for some reason or other, I basically changed my thinking. To self-indulgence. After all it was Father’s Day. And no one bought me a tie. Or anything else.

Hmm…

Isn’t it amazing what we end up confessing to strangers every now and then? Probably because they go away. And take our guarded secrets with them. They don’t linger around or about, like friends. Or acquaintances. Or even our own relatives. Reminding us of what we professed. What we imparted. The stuff that churns memories you spend a lifetime endeavoring to drink away.

Besides, she was a psychologist, as she told me early in our incipient conversation, attending a 3-day convention in Philadelphia from the Land Down Under. So I imparted a short-part of a long story from years back about me and my butterflies.

If I’ve mentioned this to you readers before, please don’t interrupt, because obviously she’s never heard about that time. In West Africa. When we ex-pats were being held – more like incarcerated – in compounds.

A large rag-tag of kid soldiers with carbines was guarding us. And one day a snarly teenager poked me one too many times in all the wrong places. And I snapped. Snatched his rifle. And provided a few angry butt strokes.

Next thing I knew — after an intervening frightening episode or two that I didn’t go into — I was in ‘the hole.’

The ‘hole’, as I explained, wasn’t quite like the solitary confinement you hear about in a U.S. prison. Nor was it like the jailhouse brig of a ship. Such as the massive four-masted steel ship turned into a floating restaurant where she and I were presently sipping beers. Aboard the upper deck, open-air bar of Philadelphia’s Moshulu.

A summer breeze skimmed across the Delaware River from the half-mile stretch to New Jersey and tussled her flowing cognac hair… as I related that the only aperture in this little dirt tunnel of ‘the hole’ was just barely large enough to frame my face.

And there I was. Hours roiled into days. Days merged into weeks. Weeks toiled over three months.

‘Months?!’ She repeated, in a controlled professional tone. ‘That could really do something to your mind.’

‘If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter,’ I said flippantly. But then admitted that it surely did. And continued that: What actually saved me. What saved my patch of sanity, were these butterflies.

‘Periodically, one… or two… would land on my face. Obviously, these lofty creatures had no idea that they landed on a human. My mug had apparently blended into the dirt and trees, beneath the burdensome humidity. Or they simply didn’t care. And recognized my despair. They seemed so goofy. But they kept me in touch. They gave me hope. They made me smile with my heart.

‘So I would keep my face motionless. And my eyes from blinking. Not only to keep from scaring them away, but hopefully because they would return.’

And they did. And, eventually, so did I.

Hmm…

‘And you’re all right with it now?’ she wondered.

‘But of course.’

‘No repercussions.’

‘This happened years back. Hey, I haven’t killed anyone in… in…’ I made a theatric gesture to count on my stubby fingers… ‘What? Three… no four months… Aren’t you lucky there aren’t any steak knives around.’

She was amused. ‘Is that how you deal with it? Humor?’

‘Is there any other way? I should have killed my last ex. But I figured what the hell, what the heck, let her latest husband hang her up by duh neck… I hear he’s researching an alibi…’

Hmm…

For some reason, at the very moment, we gazed at each other with some luxury. Not like two lovers, but simply two people who just met and engaged. A man and a woman absorbed in a revealing conversation that had rapidly transpired in the less than an hour since I pulled up a barstool next to her, smiled appreciatively, and facetiously asked: “New in town, sailor?”

Her name, I learned, was Leanne. And at this point she suddenly became aware of the din from the multitude of other patrons and diners surrounding us.

‘Is it always this busy?’ She wondered. ‘Along this harbor area.’

I explained that this harbor area is known as Penns Landing. And it’s been a coming attraction for the city for 50 years. Mostly because, surprise-surprise, the federal government never delivered what it promised by ‘capping’ the Interstate 95 that runs from New England to Florida and cleaves the city from easily ‘sitting on the dock of the bay… watching the tides drift away…”

“It’s also Father’s Day,” I informed her. “Dads get to pay to drink heavily in front of their kids.”

‘Oh yes,’ she realized, ‘You a father?’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Apparently I wasn’t a very good one.’

‘How’s that?’

‘My grown kids still think they hate me.’

‘Any particular reason?’

‘I donno. Maybe next time I ought to learn their names.’

Again she laughed. Her dark eyes sparkled. And I went on elucidating that certainly I was 49 percent of the blame concerning the matters of my dysfunctional family.

However, there is no question that my wife was, indeed, evil, I said. But don’t just take my word for it. There were petitions signed by 40,000 people. Including all her exes. And my exes. And all her forsaken screaming in padded cells. Everybody she’s driven down the potholed road of insanity. Including her parents. And they were once missionaries. Not to mention the police who would no longer arrest me. And the courts who would no longer try me. That is after they finally realized she was like a politician: when her lips moved she was lying. Otherwise she was scheming.

“So you still blame yourself, do you, mate?” I love the way beautiful outback women utter that word: Mate.

“Blame is for g-d and small children,” I said, during an especially satisfying quaff of beer. “So yes, I blame myself. I am still a small child. I used to be a g-d. But then I got over-circumcised.”

Hmm…

And then for a moment I stopped joking. I confided that my younger son was born with every imaginable and unimaginable malady known and unknown. That we had been medical vagabonds about the country seeking some magical pill. Or operation.

And at 23 the patient has survived. So far. Some days barely. And who knows for how long. But there are always consequences.

The patient has been saved in a tortured manner. But at the same time my wife killed the family. She poisoned the well. The older boy, who recently became a doctor, has little to do with her, and especially me. The younger one, after a 7 year hiatus from my life, seeks contact. Or so I have been informed by an avuncular neighbor of hers. But she won’t let him come out and play without her in hand.

And, I noted a tad more than poignantly, and only half-jokingly, that I don’t want my hands to get that close to her.

Hmm… Tired, but mostly uneasy, with this strain of conversation, I exhaled and decried that I abhor Father’s Day. ‘It’s like big bully. I am neither seen nor heard…’

And to change the subject, I threw the spotlight back on her. By this time we had ordered the house specialty of two different large Sushi rolls. And she had ‘tasted’ half of mine. Like many of the Aussies I have known from that spacious country of merely 24 million merry men and women: they do have hearty appetites. For a variety of pleasures.

“Kids?” I asked. “Married?”

Her story folded down neatly into some familiar sadness. At first she never wanted to get married. And then at 38 she decided she finally wanted to get married. And, at the same time, luckily she found someone whom she wanted to be married to.

“He has the gift of gab,” she said. “He’s into sales.”

Naturally.

And then they immediately went about trying to have kids, only to discover after a 3 or 4 and more years of tests, and more tests, that she couldn’t.

“And so I’ve left the future of my parent’s family in the hands of my brother. And he’s been quite fertile about it. So, it won’t be an end to the line.”

She yielded a quick smile that weakly disappeared into her glass of beer. It became one of those soft, quiet moments. The ripples of our mental storage had spread out with the wind that had once assured our sails. And in that instance our stories, the ragged edges of memories that altered our lives, had unfolded from an aging steamer trunk that had been packed away in the safety of our attics.

The sun had dipped over the city’s tall collection of office buildings and evening had cast its early shadows. We then weaved our way through the throngs of people as I walked her the two blocks back to her hotel. To my surprise as we first stood up from our barstools she was as tall as I am. And as firmly built.

And when she wrapped me in her long-armed, good night hug on the Hilton plaza, I returned her squeeze, just as firmly and vigorously. And simply spoke into her ear. I said something to the effect of:

We’ll probably never see one another again. We’ll walk back through the portals into our worlds. And disappear. But the last three hours have been grand. And while loneliness has become my good friend, I don’t really want to jump on my bicycle and pedal back to lonely tonight.

After all it was Father’s Day. And I can’t be a father. And you can’t be a mother. And your husband is ten thousand miles away. And my family is even further. And I don’t want to be alone. Especially tonight. I want to be held. Like the child I still am. And the g-d I once was.

Obviously this wasn’t rehearsed. It just kind of poured out. She took a sturdy step back and just kind of observed me. And like a trained psychologist she simply weighed the moment. And then like a woman, she took my hand. And led the way. Under the night sky moon, until the rosy fingers of a splendid dawn splashed into her room and tickled us awake.

Hmm…

I’m glad she and I met. And even though we’ll probably never meet or have such an opportunity again, I am thankful for the moment we had. And that I seized it. We get such few opportunities in life. Such few chances. And I don’t want them to slip away.

Not anymore.

And dats yDrewIS on dis penal colony…

]]>https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/children-begin-by-loving-their-parents-then-they-judge-them-rarely-do-they-forgive-them-but-blame-is-for-g-d-and-the-small-children-we-must-keep-from-going-insane-leanne-discovered-she-couldn/feed/0distrunkImagination was given to man to compensate for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. We don’t lose our sense of humor because we get old. We get old because we lose our sense of humor. The problem with humor is often that people you use it on aren’t in a very good mood. And Joey G was cute when he was being humorless…https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/imagination-was-given-to-man-to-compensate-for-what-he-is-not-a-sense-of-humor-to-console-him-for-what-he-is-we-dont-lose-our-sense-of-humor-because-we-get-old-we-get-old-because-we-lose-o/
https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/imagination-was-given-to-man-to-compensate-for-what-he-is-not-a-sense-of-humor-to-console-him-for-what-he-is-we-dont-lose-our-sense-of-humor-because-we-get-old-we-get-old-because-we-lose-o/#respondWed, 07 Jun 2017 15:52:30 +0000http://ydrewis.wordpress.com/?p=1747Continue reading →]]>The skinny guy was about two feet from the top of climbing the 30-foot greased pole. He was part of a team of other skinny guys with tattoos, climbing over each other, groping and hoping to get to the prizes hanging above.

The huge crowd of thousands at South Philadelphia’s sun-filled, jammed, 10-block-long Italian Festival was cheering him and his motley crew on. For no one had succeeded… yet.

Behind them gazed the watchful eyes of the wall-size mural of Philly’s erstwhile Italian mayor and police commissioner Frank Rizzo. Hizzoner, known by many pejorative monikers during his thunderous reign in the ‘60s and ‘70s, once notoriously stuffed a nightstick into his ample tuxedo cummerbund as he departed a banquet and headed off to crack some skulls.

Hmm-hmm….

Meanwhile, in front of them puffing under the Twin Smoke Shoppe cigar tent stood Joey Gannascoli and ‘me.’ Joey G is the squat, wide-faced 350-pounder who played the gay Vito in the TV mega hit Italian mob series ‘Sopranos.’ Although the show ended over 10 years ago after 6 smash seasons, Joey G still sets folks to squealing, regularly appearing at such festivals to sell signed memorabilia and posing for group pictures.

At one point, while the crowd was oohing and ahhing over the grease pole monkeys Joey G paused his pen and smiled appreciatively their way. And with a nod towards me he simply uttered: “You don’t get many chances in life. You don’t want to waste them.”

At first I thought it was kind of a cliché. And since I struggle to speak the language of banalities I sought to respond something ridiculous. You know, like: ‘Yeah, if your parents never had children, chances are neither will you.’

But, live interaction with a crowd is a cathartic, spiritual kind of exchange, and it’s intensified at a festival. And I think Joey G was harking back to that old Italian expression that goes something like: You can’t sleep on the fame.

Just then, the skinny guy two feet from the top of the grease pole started sliding away. Millimeters, then inches, then foot by foot as he and his crew came slipping and crumbling down. The crowd exhaled its hopeful disappointment.

“Another almost,” laughed Joey G, like it was something personal. “Hey, we’ve all been there… the story of our lives. Some of us almost make it. Some of us think we’ve made it. But most of us just slide away.”

Hmm… so another grease pole becomes another allegory for our lives. Made me want to strike up another cigar and blow some symbolic smoke. But a tall, gaunt Irish guy with long stringy hair beat me to the metaphor.

He strolled right up to Joey G while he was picture-posing for a proud mother with her handicapped child. And not in a casual, but more demanding inquiry, the pained-faced fellow practically insisted on knowing what Joey G was doing ‘now.’

I think Joey G is sick and tired of being sick and tired of such insistent questions. So after his dark eyes scanned across his table of memorabilia, photographs of the Sopranos cast and a bunch of license plates with such Italian urban slang as ‘fuhgeddaboudit,’ he cracked a sardonic pose and replied:

‘I’m into porn now. Sometimes with farm animals.’

Hmm… You just never know, do you?

But I do know a lot of men are insecure about their sexuality – as if you-know-what is actually contagious. And you might have thought Joey G pulled a .44 magnum loaded with hollow points out of his too-long-for-shorts-and-too-short-for-pants zipper. For the tall guy’s facial expression turned all kinds dumb and confounded before he scampered off. Desperately pushing away folks in the overcrowded 9th Street festival like he just seen Godzilla clomping his way.

‘Can you believe that guy?’ a dismayed Joey G said to me. ‘They’re a danger to laughter.’

‘Humor can get lost during an autopsy,’ I teased.

‘Yeah, look who’s talking.’

‘Hey, I’m all into porn with farm animals.’

‘That doesn’t count,’ he retorted. ‘You grew up as a farm animal.’

‘Sheesh. And let me show you how I can squeal like a rutting hog…’

At that a hefty couple of smiling anthropomorphic cows waddled up mooing all about how they just loved Joey G on the Sopranos.

Hmm… Apparently it was something I said. Because the rotund husband shot me a look that was like a knee to the only privacy the NSA hasn’t invaded. And then, referring to my collection of butterfly pins on my less-than-brawny chest, he snorted: ‘And how about you?’

That took a few seconds to penetrate as they chewed their cuds of pasta. (That’s the trouble with Italian food – five or six days later you’re hungry again.) And then I chirped: ‘Just give me 11 seconds with your wife.’

And Joey G shot back: ‘Are you cheating on me again?’

Couple didn’t know whether to giggle or wonder if they had wandered into an abattoir. But they still wanted to get their photo with the former celebrity. And Joey G kindly reminded them that if they first bought a picture or video or whatnot he would gladly pose with them.

And ain’t that the business of life — Milking your success 10 years after that sun has set. For, among all the urgent demands and necessities of living, nothing is stronger than dire necessity.

Hmm…

Once more the crowd was cheering for another grease pole climber. This one looked like he was really gonna make it. And like the song goes: …If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

‘Did anyone make it yet?’ Joey G asked aloud.

‘Yeah,” I offered, ‘You do realize it ain’t rocket surgery. One guy so far. A while ago.’

‘I must have missed it.’

“No you didn’t, Joey,” I grunted. “I may have missed it. Most of the folks here may have missed it. But not you. You had your moment.”

“Moment of what?” He seemed genuinely puzzled.

“Success,” I said. “A real hit. Out of the park.”

And just for a moment you could almost see Joey G’s mental gerbil spinning back a rerun of “The Sopranos,” and his Vito.

“That’s more than 99 percent,” I said.

Indeed.

But you could also witness a fleeting sadness in his eyes. Almost a shadow of a passing cloud. In that wink of a moment you could see that for Joey G ‘once’ was not enough. He yearned for another hit at it. He needed it, for all the reasons we all seek it. We all possess the same desire — one more turn in the barrel.

So, to snap him back to the day-to-day grind of life, I offered up to him: ‘Did you ever hear the one about the Jewish Prince?’

‘Which one?’

‘Well,’ I continued, ‘this one called up a Jewish Princess and asked her to marry him. She said no… And he lived happily ever after.’

]]>https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/imagination-was-given-to-man-to-compensate-for-what-he-is-not-a-sense-of-humor-to-console-him-for-what-he-is-we-dont-lose-our-sense-of-humor-because-we-get-old-we-get-old-because-we-lose-o/feed/0distrunkJust as there are doctors who help people who have done bad things, there are lawyers who defend bad people. People do not win fights, lawyers do. Everyone thinks defense lawyers must believe their clients are innocent, but that’s seldom true. Most of the time they are guilty as O.J… yet Trev also got his client off — mostly…https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/just-as-there-are-doctors-who-help-people-who-have-done-bad-things-there-are-lawyers-who-defend-bad-people-people-do-not-win-fights-lawyers-do-everyone-thinks-defense-lawyers-must-believe-their-cl/
https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/just-as-there-are-doctors-who-help-people-who-have-done-bad-things-there-are-lawyers-who-defend-bad-people-people-do-not-win-fights-lawyers-do-everyone-thinks-defense-lawyers-must-believe-their-cl/#respondThu, 18 May 2017 21:35:14 +0000http://ydrewis.wordpress.com/?p=1728Continue reading →]]>Trev collapsed into the cushy chair and exhaled a long satisfied pillar of smoke from his cigar. And while it formed a cumulus cloud of contentment over his exhausted, shaved head he simply uttered: “Well, I did my job…”

When a lawyer says something like that, after a ‘successful’ week-long trial, fire drills generally go off in my head. You know you gotta wonder: Who got screwed? Like the old joke about some guys eyeballing a tall leggy woman sashaying down the street, and declaring: ‘I’d like to screw that.’

And the lawyer retorts: “Outta what…”

Hmm…

Needless to say, by and large, I disdain these venal, vapid, vile legal representatives. They seem to spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke. Not to mention that the rule of law in the U.S. has become the unbearable rule of lawyers. You know: The trouble with the law ‘is’ the lawyers.

They think because they are successfully making good money they can do nothing wrong. They set the lucrative, yet contradictory rules. They set the fees. And, unfortunately, what many people forget is that judges ‘setting’ on the bench ain’t nuttin’ but lawyers wearing robes.

But I know Trev. We are cigar buddies. And to tell you the truth he works hard. And undeniably the former Philadelphia assistant DA turned defense attorney is, like most of us, rather human – unlike many of them.

And no matter what ill feelings some of us may harbor towards these scoundrels – especially those of us who have lost even more than the house, the cars, the kids and our clean underwear — it is unfair to believe everything bad we hear about lawyers.

Indeed some of it may not be true…

For the truth is in today’s world nothing important is done in the United States without lawyers.

Damn! Forgive me for admitting that. I’ll have to recite three Hail Marys and pledge my next paycheck to trees in Israel.

But it’s reality, salient, the truth and nuttin’ but… And the truth is, if bad and devious folks didn’t lie, cheat, steal and murder there would be no need for lawyers – good, bad or otherwise.

Hmm…

But as Trev unfolded his just completed murder case to me, I have to admit I was having a few personal, layman issues — moral, ethical and just plain-old-simple-common-sense wise. On the other hand, common sense ain’t so common no more. Especially when lawyers are involved.

You know, it’s as if someone kidnapped justice and hid it in the law.

But I was also getting the feeling that even Trev, skin-deep or down deep in his marinating bones, might have thought his client was guilty, guilty, guilty…

Then again, as some crusty old lawyer once espoused: Justice has nothing to do with what goes on in a courtroom. It’s what comes out of a courtroom.

It turns out Trev’s client was found both innocent and guilty. The jury found him guilty of the robbery, but innocent of the murder.

‘But he was there, at the scene,’ I wondered.

‘Definitely,’ offered Trev. ‘There is no doubt about that. The prosecution had two corroborating witnesses.’ Although Trev did point out that he had managed to trip up one of the plea bargainer’s stories in about thirteen or fourteen contradictions.

‘Was anybody else charged?’

‘No, they never found him.’

‘Okay,’ I said in pursuing the obvious, ‘then who fired the shot that stopped the dead guy’s heart from its Timex ticking?’

‘I don’t know,’ postured Trev, while leaning forward with a furrowed forehead. ‘But what I can tell you… the most pertinent piece of evidence…’

‘Oh-no!’ I snorted before he finished getting it out.’ Is this where the Mother jumps up hysterically sobbing in the courtroom, swearing that it wasn’t her sweet son’s fault. That he was psychologically scarred when he failed to make the high school chess team because of his height.’

Trev offered a tired smile and leaned back with an exhale of smoke in my direction.

In continuing, Trev said the gun was never found. But forensics determined the bullets used were the wrong caliber for the apparent 9mm murder weapon. I think he said the bullets were on the order of .380s. And that they became distorted from being fired in a 9mm.

Hmm… I donno, that’s above my non-union marksmanship.

However, Trev went on, 13 months almost to the day that very same gun with the same wrong bullets was used in another robbery. The victim was shot but didn’t die. And the crème de la crème was that Trev’s client was in jail at that time awaiting trial.

Hmm… the client didn’t get a trial for 2 years?

“No bail on a murder charge,” explained Trev.

‘You mean no bail for the poor. Not Trump’s friends.’

Trev waved away my jaded remarks like bothersome smoke.

So I merely offered: ‘Ah-ha! The plot sickens.’

And in the end, as Trev noted, there was reasonable doubt. Or enough for the jury to be out for two whole days. That was good. He knew they were thinking that something was amiss in the case.

Yeah, like what stupid idiot would use the same wrong bullets in the same wrong gun to do practically the same wrong crime?

On the other hand, Trev said his concern was that “if the jury was only out a few hours I knew it would be bad.”

Or perhaps, as I posed, ‘they were out so long because they wanted another free lunch. After all, what do jury members get? Something like a dollar an hour – to usurp divine providence?’

Hmm… And it is my distinct understanding that lawyers get paid much, much more to keep their client’s neck from the jury’s noose.

“The family did pay me,” intoned Trev.

Indeed.

In the end, Trev’s client got sentenced to 8 years, with two already served.

“But he could have gotten life.”

At that, I pointed out, somewhat smugly, he also could have testified.

“No way,” insisted Trev. “No way.”

But of course!

As we all are aware from ‘Perry Mason’ to ‘Law & Order’ there are many misdirections and strategies a lawyer pulls out of a hat in the courtroom. Not allowing a client to testify is often, simply, to prevent cross-examination where he might say or reveal something really-really stupid.

I mean, lawyers are, after all, the first refuge of the incompetent. Most of them, at least. And whether we agree or not is irrelevant. You get what you pay for. It’s a magic show. And, undeniably, a lawyer’s job is to defend his client with every trick up his very long sleeves.

In any case, from their first day in law school lawyers learn only how to win. They are not there to solve problems. As a result, unfortunate as it may seem, and whether we like it or not, trials are no longer about freeing the innocent, punishing the guilty, and making restitution to the injured. They have devolved into a contest over who will win.

Likewise, everyone thinks defense lawyers must believe their clients are innocent, but that’s seldom true. Most of the time they believe their client about as much as O.J. Or less.

Which brought me to asking Trev, straightforward, if he thought his client was guilty. Or, at least bears a lot of responsibility for his actions.

Trev twisted slightly in his over-stuffed chair, tipping off a fit-body language that more than suggested he thought his client was as guilty as my father of siring me. And as I was about to posture – perhaps more than a tad sardonically — that it is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one, Trev offered:

‘I don’t know if I really believed my client. I have serious doubts… He wasn’t exactly innocent… But he did get 8 years… I just did my job…’

Absolutely. For it was just a job. And done well – at least considering his client’s limited options. And, all in all, that’s how jobs go. Just as grass grows. Birds fly. Politicians lie. People dig graves. Cattle get slaughtered. Victims get killed. And lawyers… well lawyers defend bad people, and other clients.

Or, at least, do what they’re supposed to do.

Hmm…

And, as our smoke drifted away with our thoughts I offered a bow to Trev: ‘He was
lucky to get you as his attorney. You must be good.’

And Trev, with a composed smile, offered back: ‘I like to think so.’

And dats yDrewIS on dis penal colony…

]]>https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/just-as-there-are-doctors-who-help-people-who-have-done-bad-things-there-are-lawyers-who-defend-bad-people-people-do-not-win-fights-lawyers-do-everyone-thinks-defense-lawyers-must-believe-their-cl/feed/0distrunkMother’s Day can be a torment, especially if your mother’s been dead less than a year… Men are what their mothers made them. And my mother was slightly insane. She told us baked potato skins were bad for us – so she could devour ours. Hmm… I write a mental letter to my mother every day… and apparently so does my brother…https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/mothers-day-can-be-a-torment-especially-if-your-mothers-been-dead-less-than-a-year-men-are-what-their-mothers-made-them-and-my-mother-was-slightly-insane-she-told-us-bake/
https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/mothers-day-can-be-a-torment-especially-if-your-mothers-been-dead-less-than-a-year-men-are-what-their-mothers-made-them-and-my-mother-was-slightly-insane-she-told-us-bake/#respondThu, 11 May 2017 18:21:29 +0000http://ydrewis.wordpress.com/?p=1711Continue reading →]]>The other night with all the Mother’s Day promotions stuffing my email inbox I sent my brudder-duh-heart-doc in San Francisco a short note.

I know, I know… I must be getting old. But I do have my rare moments of human kindness.

“Hey, try not to go too existential,” I wrote, “but I’m sitting here in the dark. Thinking. First Mom’s day without Mom… Life is life. It’s nice to know that people don’t really die until the last person who remembers them dies too… It’s a melancholy thought. But a delightful one. And so life goes… and goes… and voila, then it’s gone.”

And my older brother, the brilliant dork who got all the brains while I got the mental maladies, and who’s never shared more than a tablespoon of cod liver oil with his little, pain-in-the-buttocks, doofus sibling, replied:

“Interesting that you wrote this note, as I was thinking of Mom today also. But then again I think about her often. So many times during the day I think what Mom might’ve said about certain situations. Every time someone talks about my gray hair, I think of hers. Instead of forgetting about her, I think I am thinking more of her.”

Hmm… there’s nothing like the scars of age to soften two old warriors. It’s what becomes of the broken-hearted.

But even more interesting was the link my brother attached to an article he had penned a couple of months prior.

It seems that these two women, in their mid to late 60s, had presented themselves at his hospital weeks apart. And each of them was in the midst of a serious heart attack that had destroyed about 50 percent of their heart muscles.

But what was unusual was that their attacks weren’t caused by their arteries being clogged by cholesterol, preventing the flow of blood to their hearts, which then causes the death of heart muscle. Their heart attacks were caused by a spasm and constriction of normal arteries. And my brother surmised that their spasms may have been the result of certain people being quite susceptible to the release of adrenalin provoked by fear and anger.

And as it would happen one of the women was still severely distressed and angry that Trump had won the White House. (Do I need to remind you that this was in California?) And the other woman was all contorted about the Standing Rock oil pipeline controversy in North Dakota.

It turns out that both ladies had a rare variety of a heart attack known as Takotsubo – often called the ‘Broken Heart Syndrome.’

And my brother conjectured that as far as he knew these were the first reported cases of a Broken Heart Syndrome type of heart attack induced by a political event.

Hmm…

Obviously my big brother doesn’t get out much. He should have tagged along with me in West Africa. And Russia. And Southeast Asia.

Needless to say these two women survived nicely. But all I could think was that a broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for such women in San Francisco, especially if they have a comfortable income. Because next week they’ll be stressing themselves out on something else – like the burnt coffee served at ‘Starbutts.’

Anyway my interventional cardiologist brother wrote on, to something that read like philosophy 101. That if the country wants to heal we’ve got to communicate more and understand each other better.

Hmm… No shit…

“Only then can we heal our broken hearts and divided country,” he espoused.

Obviously he doesn’t drink enough, either. Or he needs much bigger hearing aids.

But I wrote him back:
“Nice article… but never forget the old song: Only time heals a broken heart… So just don’t run out of time… tick-tock… tick-tock…”

You know, like Debbie Reynolds dying the day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher, succumbed. And my successful farmer and businessman Dad suffering a stroke that wiped out his mental motherboard not long after he finally and reluctantly sold the farm.

Such as it is. For in matters of the heart nothing is true except the improbable. We seem to forget that at the heart of the matter our cardiovascular monster only wants our blood.

And if my mother – who, like most mothers, was an instinctive philosopher — was still alive she probably would have smacked those two broken-hearted women a couple of teeth back.

For no matter what she seemed to be, big-breasted Mom was, for better or worse, as conflicted and whacky as the rest of us. Her rowdy laugh roared before sunrise; her heart bled from a thousand wounds, and her simple, straight–talking mind could easily foresee the future, because she gave birth to it in her children.

Her steeped philosophy was that there’s nothing you can do about the weather, so smile.

And indeed it was her smile that always greeted us that I was picturing that day, about a week after last Thanksgiving. Family and scores of friends had all gathered for Mom’s memorial service. It was at my brother’s grand-windowed house on the high and windy hill, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge straddling the glistening San Francisco Bay.

We handed out many of Mom’s hundred-or-so large, colorful, theatrical clip-on earrings. Joked that while most Thanksgiving turkeys taste even better the day after, Mom’s tasted better the day before… she cooked it in beer. And admittedly we were a tad disappointed that none of the gray and blue-hair lady friends had sashayed in wearing one of Mom’s signature, over-sized, pastel hats.

But the laughter all ceased when I stood up after my much taller brother to say a few words. I had just started to utter something about how we get old too soon and wise too late when I succumbed to the moment. And burst into a bottomless grief of tears.

What was happening to cynical, sarcastic me? Even my brother’s son, standing next to me, also an interventional cardiologist, was surprised. Here was his wise-ass, hard-hearted ,stabbed, shot and, worst of all, assaulted-by-editors uncle bawling like his newborn son.

What duh hell, what duh heck was this about, I could only wonder. The only other time I could remember sobbing this way was nearly 23 years back. It was immediately after I had to make a final, life and death, mid-surgery decision for my month-old, younger son, born with every congenital heart and lung problem known to science.

Now, a moment later my big brother slipped over to me and whispered softly: ‘I never told you it was going to be easy.’

Hmm…

No shit.

But how could I have known?

And that’s the thing about the death of your mother, or anyone else you love: You can’t anticipate how you’ll feel afterward. People will tell you; a few may be close to right, but none exactly right.

None.

No matter how many Mother’s Day come and go.

And dats yDrewIS on dis penal colony…

]]>https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/mothers-day-can-be-a-torment-especially-if-your-mothers-been-dead-less-than-a-year-men-are-what-their-mothers-made-them-and-my-mother-was-slightly-insane-she-told-us-bake/feed/0distrunkAny jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one up. In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to love… but us ‘old men’ turn to painting the house. I may not be perfect, but I am avid – about not giving a damn. After all, as I told my mammoth, cigar-puffing, Italian landlord: Look what ‘youse’ guys did to that last Jewish carpenter…https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/05/05/any-jackass-can-kick-down-a-barn-but-it-takes-a-good-carpenter-to-build-one-up-in-the-spring-a-young-mans-fancy-lightly-turns-to-love-but-us-old-men-turn-to-pain/
https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/05/05/any-jackass-can-kick-down-a-barn-but-it-takes-a-good-carpenter-to-build-one-up-in-the-spring-a-young-mans-fancy-lightly-turns-to-love-but-us-old-men-turn-to-pain/#respondFri, 05 May 2017 20:47:33 +0000http://ydrewis.wordpress.com/?p=1702Continue reading →]]>My landlord warned me.

Then again, my over-sized, South Philadelphia, Italian landlord and I have a rather pedestrian relationship. That is, as long as I pay the rent, he allows me to live where I live. And enjoy breathing.

Which is probably why he warned me… to be careful. No doubt because he doesn’t want to lose one of the few good tenants he’s got. That is one who pays rent. On time. And takes care of the place. That he lovingly built. And lived in for 10 years. Before he got married. And moved across the river to New Jersey. And now has a ‘second job’ trying to have a second kid.

Hmm… Who would have ever thought that having another kid would require so much work. Especially at something you used to enjoy working overtime on. While taking so many precautions to defer the midnight feedings and predawn, aromatic diaper changes.

Life can be such a conundrum… And rather screwy. Or, in my landlord’s case – exhausting.

Nonetheless, last week I informed the oversized galoot, who throws around hundred pound sacks from his restaurant supply business much more easily then I can toss about air guitars, that the second-floor, wooden and glass French doors badly needed revitalizing. Not to mention the broken doorbell, and the front stoop.

And Big Anthony squeezed out a big give-a-shit smile, with some of his cigar smoke and uttered:

‘Did you get that notice of the rent increase?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘I wiped my ass with it.’

Such is the grandeur of our cigar smoking relationship.

At that I exhaled and shrugged: ‘I guess I’m going to have to do it, so the doors don’t rot away. And I’ll end up freezing in the winter.’

‘Be sure to be careful with the polyurethane,’ were his parting words. ‘Keep the doors and windows open while you’re using it. And don’t forget to sand the doors down, first.’

Hmm… He didn’t need to remind me not to forget to tape around all the windows in the French doors – all 20 of them!

But of course!

Did I happen to mention that I’m no good with this manual labor stuff. The closest I’ve come to working with my hands the last 30 years has been pounding on my computer… and blocking punches from outraged readers.

Indeed, I am avid. I am willing and eager. But I was the guy in that once-a-week high school shop class who everything that I made ended up being an ashtray.

I remember a bloody time with one of my future-ex-wives. I was carving out some perches for our bird cage. And just before I sliced my left index finger nearly off she had already gone to the kitchen to fetch paper towels.

‘How did you know?’ I wondered as she was driving me to the emergency room to be repaired with 8 stitches.

‘You never fail,’ she said, and began to laugh hysterically. ‘You’re terrible with your hands.’

‘At everything?!’

‘Pretty much.’

Hmm… I wonder what she really meant by that? Perhaps some day I ought to ask if Ed, my ex-best friend in Carolina, and her next, was any better with his hands. Then again they have stayed together the last 35 years.

No doubt I should have been handier.

But I am what I am. Like a puppy… panting, willing, excited, anxious… but has no bloody idea if he’s supposed to chew that stick… or stick it up his ass.

So I walked to the paint store. And after an hour of scouting about bought the sandpaper, brushes and polyurethane.

“Anything else I need,” I asked the youthful clerk. “Anything special I need to do?” The kid shrugged, like I was interrupting the only two thoughts guys that age have – tits… and ass.

His only disinterested response: “Cash… or credit card?”

It took me a good hour to sand the flaking crud off the heavy wooden doors. And well over an hour to tape around those 20 beveled windows.

Over an hour of taping! What-duh-hell-what-duh-hell…what duh-f-k am I doing?

But like my dear ol’ bourbon sipping Pappy used to preach to his two indentured servants – my brother and me: ‘Preparation is the key to success!’

What he meant, as we often learned, was that if we screwed up that he was prepared to plant his size elevens where duh sun don’t shine.

Hmm…

Then I began slapping on the first of four coats of the polyurethane. And even though I was completely outside, standing on the second floor balcony, the toxic aroma of the polyurethane immediately started smacking me up alongside my pathetic little brain.

The second coat got my lungs to begging. The third blew up my head like a beach ball. And by the fourth I was heavy into bourbon, beer and a shot or two of brandy.

Sheesh… the stuff is worse than an ex-wife.

Okay, perhaps I should have said: at least as bad as having ‘perfect’ me as your husband…

Then again, one merely kills you, while duh utter demonically tortures you until you welcome death. In front of a speeding Mack truck. (I’ll let you sort that out.)

Hmm…

And while I was leaning over the balcony, assuming a sickly position, Jo-Jo, who owns the car detailing shop across the street shouted up: ‘You should be wearing a mask!’

But of course!

And Mark, my neighbor to the south, who is a contractor, snorted: ‘You should have picked a cooler day!’

And then Vinny, my South Vietnamese neighbor to the north, who always looks like he’s scowling, shouted up: ‘You should have gotten my son to do that!’

What I should have done was heave my digested, gurgling beer, bourbon and brandy all over them.

But after another hour slumped on the deck, while my sickly sweat evaporated, I eventually pulled myself enough together to finish my other two ‘honey-do’ jobs: Fixing the doorbell without electrocuting the entire neighborhood. And repainting the front stoop that I somehow managed to construct without killing myself nearly 4 years ago.

At last I proudly stood out front, pointing out my day of accomplishments, in grandiose detail to everyone passing by on their way to the local pub. I didn’t care if they were deaf, blind or just dumb they were going to hear my braggadocio.

Most folks smiled politely, but then seemed a little nervous when I kept ringing the doorbell, and pointing up to the balcony doors practically glistening in the late afternoon sun.

Finally Adam, my ‘honest’ Jewish attorney stopped by. And after I rang the doorbell and pointed out my ‘excellent’ work on the front stoop and balcony doors, he offered his usually terse and honest assessment.

“You do remember what they did to that last Jewish carpenter, don’t you?”

Hmm…

And dats yDrewIS on dis penal colony…

]]>https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/05/05/any-jackass-can-kick-down-a-barn-but-it-takes-a-good-carpenter-to-build-one-up-in-the-spring-a-young-mans-fancy-lightly-turns-to-love-but-us-old-men-turn-to-pain/feed/0distrunkI don’t do guilt. I definitely don’t embrace collective guilt when we should be implementing collective responsibility. Guilt is like bondage. It is a thief… it robs from your life. It doesn’t garner my sympathy, especially because ‘sympathy’ in my dictionary is located between shit and syphilis…https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/i-dont-do-guilt-i-definitely-dont-embrace-collective-guilt-when-we-should-be-implementing-collective-responsibility-guilt-is-like-bondage-it-is-a-thief-it-robs-from-your/
https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/i-dont-do-guilt-i-definitely-dont-embrace-collective-guilt-when-we-should-be-implementing-collective-responsibility-guilt-is-like-bondage-it-is-a-thief-it-robs-from-your/#respondThu, 27 Apr 2017 21:19:57 +0000http://ydrewis.wordpress.com/?p=1699Continue reading →]]>I have more than a wee bit of trouble with people who just refuse to listen. Like in politics, or with bad spouses.

I mean, no one is as deaf as a person who will not listen. As if they don’t believe what I am actually saying unequivocally. You know, they agree while simultaneously not agreeing. Constantly emphasizing with a pointed finger, while repeatedly uttering the equivocation:

“Yeah… but!…”
“Of course… but!…”
“Absolutely… but!…”

It seems I am greatly misunderstood by a bunch politically correct ‘butts’ doing brilliant impersonations of the flatulent asses over-stuffing the first 50 rows of a WWE wrasslin’ match. It’s seems to be the latest fashion.

They’re like the folks in a cemetery. Their mental gerbils died at the wheel. And Helen Keller is their translator. For some reason necromancy comes to mind.

How many times do I have to say:

I don’t do guilt. I gave it up. For Lent. Or was it Passover? Probably for the neighbor’s tattooed wife. For-ever…! I have no guilt about any of my pleasures. I don’t have any gnawing guilt over contributing to any unhappiness suffered by my wives. They were as much to blame as I was. I harbor nothing Freudian, even if my parents did have sex like a hog hollering contest… etc…etc…

Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s like punishing yourself before G-d doesn’t. I know some of my Catholic friends can’t drink the guilt out of their original sin. But I tell them no one holds a grudge for thousands of years. And if G-d, or Yahweh, or Allah can’t get over it, then He or She or He/She or It just gotta drink higher octane.

But still these dismal souls persist. And dolefully inquire:

‘How about the Armenian Genocide?’
Not guilty.
‘The American Indian?’
Not guilty.
‘Slaves?’
Not guilty.
‘The Amori in New Zealand?’
Not guilty.
‘Aborigines in Australia?’
Not guilty.
‘Rwanda?’
Not guilty.
‘Stalin?’
Not guilty.
‘Mao?’
Not guilty.
‘Khmer Rouge?’
Not guilty.
‘Germans?’
Not guilty. But I should add here that a thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased.

Hmm…

Anyway, I don’t know what these guilt mongers want from me. They can’t help themselves. They are tormented by guilt to the point that if they don’t ‘feel’ wrong, they don’t feel right.

I mean I feel sad for the past. I understand. But, apparently, nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt.

But I’ve got serious problems with unconditional sympathy. Especially when sympathy appears in my dictionary between shit and syphilis.

There’s just no point in waking up and feeling sorry for yourself or for others. Hell they don’t want your pity. Pity is the final indignity. What people want is for us to correct our mistakes. You know, instead of being part of the problem, provide some solutions.

In other words, instead of feeling sorry for yourself, go out and help change a bad habit. Feeling sorry for yourself is the most useless waste of energy on the planet. It does absolutely no good. We can’t let our circumstances or what others do or don’t do control us.

But we can decide to be happy regardless.

I mean, there’s guilt about our treatment of native peoples in modern intellectual life, and an unwillingness to acknowledge there could be anything good about Western culture. And even in America with some of its abhorrent past. After all, we’ve also done lots of good stuff.

I remember listening to a professor espouse: ‘For better or worse, we live in possible worlds as much as actual ones. We are cursed by that characteristically human guilt and regret about what might have been in the past. But that may be the cost for our ability to hope and plan for what might be in the future.’

Now there you go.

Guilt is like bondage. Guilt is a thief… it robs from your life.

It’s a negative emotion. Even though negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life; they’re big, flashing signs that something needs to change.

So instead of reducing ourselves to collective guilt we should be embracing collective responsibility.

Always remember to never forget…. Armenians, Rawandans, New Zealand, Jewish or American genocides. We cannot go into denial. There is nothing I can stop to prevent what has already happened. I can just endeavor to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself… Which it often does.

In other words, we all carry the baggage of our forefathers. We cannot vanquish the sins of our great grandfathers, nor hate our grandmothers. As a result our lives become a complicated dance. I mean, we can’t just denounce the people we’ve grown up loving. We may know them well, but love them anyway.

Life isn’t like a movie… you can’t write your own ending. And I’m not always going to keep waiting for a fairy tale finale where in the end we throw down our crutches and walk. It is what it is. People are what they are. The past is what it was. If you want me to feel guilty about something, then make it something I pretend to ignore. Something I can do something about for the future.

All I can say is that a hard beginning often makes for a good ending.

Happy endings.

Hmm… Even if, as I’ve mentioned a time of two before, they’re mostly in porno films.

And dats yDrewIS on dis penal colony…

]]>https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/i-dont-do-guilt-i-definitely-dont-embrace-collective-guilt-when-we-should-be-implementing-collective-responsibility-guilt-is-like-bondage-it-is-a-thief-it-robs-from-your/feed/0distrunkLife is beautiful but people are crazy. It’s just the way we are. Of course I’m crazy, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. And that’s what Louie-duh-too-sane-lawyer was trying to explain to crazy-Ian…https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/20/life-is-beautiful-but-people-are-crazy-its-just-the-way-we-are-of-course-im-crazy-but-that-doesnt-mean-im-wrong-the-object-of-life-is-not-to-be-on-the-side-of-t/
https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/20/life-is-beautiful-but-people-are-crazy-its-just-the-way-we-are-of-course-im-crazy-but-that-doesnt-mean-im-wrong-the-object-of-life-is-not-to-be-on-the-side-of-t/#respondThu, 20 Apr 2017 21:24:12 +0000http://ydrewis.wordpress.com/?p=1688Continue reading →]]>Louie-duh-lawyer isn’t the only one over at the Twin Cigar Shoppe who is absolutely certain that Ian is insane — even for this planet. Which is why we dub him ‘the alien.’

Apparently Ian thinks mostly when he’s squatting on the john, which is no doubt why his thoughts smell mostly shitty.

Among other things he is propounding, of late, is that Zeus is the devil; that a mother-ship has been snatching entire families of hikers out of shady mountain forests; And that the Jews are at fault, about most things, even the Russian invasion of Crimea and the continuing Afghanistan debacle. But that I am the exception… as long as I am willing to bullshit him a good recommendation for something he’s been allergic to in the 7 years I’ve known him – a job.

But then again, I think Louie-duh-lawyer, who is always abstaining to keep his body fat too low, his physique too fit, his blood flow too healthy and his diet too tasteless is absolutely a tad too-too-too rigidly sane.

You know… brittle.

I mean, just the other day a hot young woman tried to pick him up in one of his well-fitting, upscale, lawyer suits outside the courthouse. She said he looked like he belonged in the men’s fashion magazine ‘GQ.’ Even slipped him her phone number.

And naturally, Louie told her, sorry but he had to go work-out.

After all Louie had only been to the gym five days (and nights) that week. Obviously the man has some dumbbell issues.

And then again, I shouldn’t talk. There was that woman with the bawdy laugh I woke up with the other morning. Would you believe she had the abject, ineffable audacity to accuse me of forcing her to drink too many potent cosmopolitans. Then of locking her in my bedroom-without-a-door and having my 11-second-way with her – yet again!

And then she proclaimed that: ‘You’re not crazy enough, D.I!’

Who, moi?!

Hey, I’ve been strapped to a bed in a drooling academy. Then again, even my psychiatrist – finally! — was able to convince my insistent brother-duh-heart doc and his wife-duh-lawyer that I wasn’t really crazy enough to be put away there — forever! But it doesn’t seem to bother them much, now… now that my mother’s will, that my sister-in-law ‘assisted’ in formulating, was finally probated. Including the part that disinherits anybody — no matter how little I’m getting — who attempts to sue.

Hmm…

Actually I don’t get upset if people think I’m crazy. If you go to a mental hospital and someone calls you a name, would you get upset? Of course not. Well, that’s the way I think about the world. They don’t know any better.

In other words: You can’t control all the crazy stuff that happens to you. All you can control is the way you handle it.

And you wonder why I don’t own a gun!

But of course!

We all be crazy… it’s just a matter of degrees. Like many of my fellow cigar puffers in the South Philadelphia Twin Smoke Shoppe.

Like Petey, who is anal about getting his overly groomed, short-short-hair cut every, single week. And the other hazy Petey who is always slapping himself in the crotch. And the in-heavy-debt Little Anthony who perpetually claims he’s going to start saving money, but then goes out and buys yet another car. And all-of-650-pound-Frankie who gobbles up every cheese doddle, pastry and box of chocolates in the shoppe, except for the very last piece. And way-over-Grizzly-bear-size Freddy who after hibernating all winter still moans and groans daily that he’s tired. Or Keith the bartender, who after another overnight of tequila shots swears again he ain’t drinking no more…

Hmm…

But in Ian’s case, I have to admit there ain’t no 6 degrees of separation. In fact he’s the f-king mayor of crazy town. He’s the blind man in a gun fight. And did you ever notice that crazy people don’t sit around wondering if they’re nuts.

And, in truth, I like Ian… most of the time… kind-of. When he isn’t overly animated, proselytizing in a domineering tone that even penetrates my deaf left ear.

Admittedly he can be interesting. Even impressive. He’s got a photographic mind that
can recite long poems by Keats and Byron — verbatim.

After all, I’ve always accepted that craziness and madness are a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world. However, you should never, ever forget that ‘crazy’ is a term of art; ‘insane’ is a term of law. Remember that, and you will save yourself a lot of trouble.

I perpetually remind Ian of that… even to the point where I poignantly explain the difference between stupidity and genius:

Genius has its limitations, I tell him again… and again… and again.

But I’m wasting oxygen. Even when I repeat over and over that the object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

But this time Ian even got me rankled. Perhaps because I was too sober. And perhaps Louie-duh-lawyer, who is always too abstemious, continually seems to need to engage, to lead Ian to the light — of an oncoming freight train. And I don’t just suspect – but know! – that Louie would have a better chance of convincing the venal bar association to embrace ANY ethics. Or at least lower their legal fees… down to retail.

Hmm…

Anyway…

During one of our grand, recent, sunny afternoons we were blowing smoke and chawing with a new cigar rep. He was a big-ol’ Texas boy with a ponytail and muscles who waxed easily about spending his impressive years with that notorious oxymoron – Military Intelligence. Or was it Home Security. Or Special-Ops…

Whatever… But I did notice his feet were bathed in handmade Italian cowboy boots. And he was just the right combination of charm and bullshit that made you immediately like him.

But then gangly, tall Ian popped into the shop, booming with his high-pitched interruptions. And I warned the cowboy — in the midst of one of his tales how-the-Russian-KGB-couldn’t-torture-a-confession-outta-him — to hold on because he was in for a bumpy ride. So he grabbed onto his Texas-size belt-buckle and settled in for the stampede of neon-Ian.

And Ian started out giggling impishly about Trump dropping the (MOAB) Mother Of All Bombs. And like Trump, was confused about whether it was detonated in Iraq or Afghanistan. But geography didn’t stop him from another upending peroration.

And then after eyeing the new cigar rep Ian shifted immediately into how he (Ian) is undoubtedly the only guy who understands the cigar business. And lectured the new guy how he is doing everything wrong even if his cigars are already in 40 states… and this is what he should be doing.

And Gary-duh-good-looking-cop-who’s-never-seen-a reflection-of-himself-he-didn’t-adore tried to change the subject to a local missing person story. But Ian lassoed in the Texas rep with long dark tales of the shady mountain forests where entire families have gone completely missing.

Poof! Without a trace.

No shit! Please, take me!

And while Ian continued to ignore my pleas that roared into screams to give the new guy a break: “We want him to come back again!” Louie-duh-lawyer tried to veer the topic off to missile launching North Korea.

Oy-vey! Oh-no! More ammunition. Cock and load! Batten down the hatches.

Ian, of course, insisted he was against any intervention anywhere. He had already forgotten that he started his mad-mad-world of mad moments gleefully about Trump dropping that MOAB somewhere to the mid-east of us.

Ian was even against our intervention over 60 years ago to hold off the crazy communist at the 38th parallel.

At this point, perhaps I should point out that Ian is a product of that Korean war… which, you may remember,wasn’t a war, but a police action that still cost 54,000 American lives. And at least twice that number who got their brains frozen in time.

It seems that Ian’s Italian father met his Korean mother in between combats there. And brought her back to South Philadelphia. And conceived Ian.

And when Louie pointed this out, that our intervention (at least this time) helped formed a prospering country, a loyal ally and brought forth Ian himself, it didn’t seem to register any more or less than an illegal immigrant.

Hmm… Lou had me and a lot of others, going there. At least until that last point: That Ian was initiated in a moment of passion.

And look, I have to admit that I am more than a tad reluctant to intervene, and especially shed American blood in another country’s squabbles. However, when their refugee problem becomes our immigration problem I draw more than a line in the sand.

Arm the nuclear warheads.

I mean, there are times when crazy is not so crazy. Or at least, it’s the safest place to be. You know, somewhat like Ian – over the edge. Although you may agree that there is no honest way to explain the edge because the only people who know where it is, again like Ian, have long gone over it.

Louie, however, went almost apoplectic that Ian couldn’t grasp the obvious. And I pointed out to Lou that sometimes that’s the precisely the way I feel when I’m talking to him. That is, Lou. Mister arch-conservative. Wears nothing but Catholic black. And can’t fathom how the world doesn’t operate ‘According to Lou.’ And the Wall Street Journal.

And I am sure, I informed him, that he demonstrates his tolerance when he thinks I proclaim something that’s crazy by merely smiling and saying: ‘That’s nice.’

Hmm…

And don’t we all.

But at this point, thankfully, Ian received a phone call from his mother ship and scurried out the door. And the cowboy cigar rep, made his excuses to escape and go find the nearest shot-and-a-beer bar.

And as everyone departed I leaned back, chuckled, and exhaled a few oversize smoke rings. And while they drifted across the open spaces of the newly renovated Twin Smoke Shoppe, I got to wondering:

Am I, or is it everybody else, that’s crazy?

Hmm… then again, if we weren’t all crazy, we’d just go insane. It’s just the way we are.

And dats yDrewIS on dis penal colony…

]]>https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/20/life-is-beautiful-but-people-are-crazy-its-just-the-way-we-are-of-course-im-crazy-but-that-doesnt-mean-im-wrong-the-object-of-life-is-not-to-be-on-the-side-of-t/feed/0distrunkPlans are wasted; but planning is everything. And in a troubled world where we are paying more but getting less, we are pissed. But the real problem is we are lying hypocrites. We feel entitled. We pray on Sunday morning then rage on the road driving home. And United Airlines and Wells Fargo merely did unto us what we do unto others…https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/plans-are-wasted-but-planning-is-everything-and-in-a-troubled-world-where-we-are-paying-more-but-getting-less-we-are-pissed-but-the-real-problem-is-we-are-lying-hypocrites-we-feel-entitled-we-pr/
https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/plans-are-wasted-but-planning-is-everything-and-in-a-troubled-world-where-we-are-paying-more-but-getting-less-we-are-pissed-but-the-real-problem-is-we-are-lying-hypocrites-we-feel-entitled-we-pr/#respondFri, 14 Apr 2017 13:00:39 +0000http://ydrewis.wordpress.com/?p=1652Continue reading →]]>I don’t know how my father learned how to be the boss in starting and running his little chainsaw factory that, at times when contracts were due, employed a hundred men and women in those post-war labor-intensive days.

Perhaps it was because he was on his own, without anyone to lean on just after the Great War, with both his parents dead. Or, due to years of farming his many hundreds of acres and learning that: if you don’t nurture your crops, their bounty won’t yield. That if you abuse the cows, they won’t produce your milk. That if you don’t protect the sheep the wild dogs will kill them. That to get the most out of your farmhands, during their dawn to dusk toils, you had to be both firm and fair – to lead without being bossy.

In other words, don’t beat and smack the hired beast-of-burden… like he did his sons.

Hmm… but that’s a story for another day.

Today I am trying to figure out how my father, with only an engineering degree, managed.

He didn’t have an MBA or other professional pedigrees so mandated in this modern, soulless, business world. He wasn’t possessed with artifice or big on sophistication. His sense of humor was constricted. He couldn’t deliver a joke. And admittedly in his early years he fumbled his way through.

I think his only concern was building a great product, whether it was the budding one-man chainsaw, or the incipient riding lawnmowers.

Indeed, he was a cantankerous, backhand-and-forehand SOB to my brother and me. But in business and with his employees, as well as former fellow farmers down on their luck, I think he was a definition of toughness but goodness…

After all, goodness is about character — integrity, honesty, generosity, moral courage, and the like. But more than anything else, it is about how we treat other people. You know, the fallow Golden Rule that’s ‘misconstrued’ these days on Wall Street, Main Street, the Boardroom, Congress, Big Business, as well as the guy giving you the finger down the highway: To do unto ‘dem’ others before dem others do it unto you.

In basic street terms it’s refined down to: Go f-k yourself.

But apparently my bourbon sippin’, corncob-puffing Pappy was more conflicted. Certainly my brother-duh-heart-doc and I witnessed only his dour side. That is, with us he was implacable. We failed miserably at any attempt to please him. And, to say the least, he was hazardous.

We may have thought he was a truculent, raging high-tempered, pugnacious maniac who punished swiftly, severely and stridently. But with his customers and workers in his manufacturing plant there was a magnanimous uprightness.

And the factory responded. Even though it is said that the only time some people work like a horse is when the boss drives them.

Hmm…

Now I bet you know damn well where contemptuous, cynical me is going with all this.

But of course!

Then again… with folks taking a break from pornography to prepare for the upcoming NFL Draft week, you may have missed the ‘naughty-boss’ and ‘corporate-bad-boy’ stories raging in the news these days.

But for those of us who noticed, we are just indignant! Aghast! Even more appalled than at the horrifying Syrian abomination (though Putin claims it is ‘fake news’ from a country absolutely positive there were WMD’s in Iraq) of al-Assad sarin gassing and killing his own fellow men, women and children.

But, of course, I am talkin’ bout those latest of the latest ‘impious,’ corporate ‘sins.’ Those of Wells Fargo Bank and United Airlines screwing its very own customers.

Ouch!… Am I hurting you, babe?

Tsk-tsk! Imagine that. And with Big Business – especially airlines and banks – already ranking just ahead of ‘dead-last’ Congress in the Gallup polls of institutions Americans love to hate.

And, with the ‘Orwellian’ misspeak by the CEOs of Wells Fargo and United fueling the public’s fury, should I also mention here that: Between 1978 and 2015, as the country’s average worker’s pay increased by a mere 10 percent, CEO pay rose by more than 940 percent.

Good-golly-Miss-Molly!

But please, don’t get me wrong here. So tamp down your adjustable-rate of petulant, self-righteous exasperation. Let he who is without sin quit casting bullshit. Afterall your pension plans and 401Ks, mortgages, investments, and lots of utter stuff has lots of skin in this game.

In one way or another we are all complicit here.

Let’s just admit that we share in the blame. So don’t be two-faced and embolden yourself with a holier than thou false impression. Especially in the money mirror. No amount of pancake make-up can disguise that we are all prostitutes and whores, whether to the boardroom, the big stockholders or to the boss who signs our minimum-wage paychecks so that we can pay down our overloaded credit cards.

Hey, those lowly 5,300 ‘fired’ Wells Fargo employees falsely opening up millions of fake bank accounts in trying to meet those unmeetable demands by their big-bonus bosses, well understood what they were doing ‘unto others.’

But it’s just like you pray and beg while rolling the craps dice: ‘Lordy… Lordy… Lordy… Baby-needs-a-new-pair-of-shoes!’

And don’t try to convince me that you were just following orders. Or that you think your boss was absolutely stupid. The fact is you probably wouldn’t have had a job if he was any smarter.

Hmm…

And meanwhile, where were those good Christian-Muslim-Jewish Samaritans on that United flight out of Chicago the other night?

If they really ‘believed!’ that the 69-year old Doctor, shockingly being dragged and pummeled from the seat he paid for, absolutely had to get back to his patients in Kentucky then why didn’t they stand up. And demonstrate some of dear ol’ Pappy’s good old-fashioned leadership and goodness.

You know: make that imperious, belligerent United supervisor a deal the bitch couldn’t refuse – especially on behalf of the unfriendly skies, reaping record profits while literally ‘squeezing’ every indignity out of customers.

If United unquestionably needed 4 seats to transport crewmembers in order to get a United flight out of Louisville, then inform this haughty airline fascist that: In return for the 4 ‘favors’ you pay us each $1,000 and immediately Uber us the 300 miles to Louisville.

Sound good? Then ‘come-on down!’

Look we know we’re bending over to get screwed from Wall Street, to Main Street to the washed out whores down the street. And, for the most part, we’ve long surrendered and are just relieved those O’hare airport security guards in Chicago weren’t knocking out ‘my’ teeth.

Afterall, it’s not as if we haven’t seen this before – last week, last month, last year. United and Wells Fargo are merely the latest distressing twits caught on Twitter, e-mail paper trails and cell phone cameras, documenting the rampant bestiality in our nation of sheep.

All too soon another crooked politician will be reelected just before being sent to jail. It’s no secret we live under the thumb of banks too big to fail and airline monopolies that are given the only routes to get us from here to there.

We are controlled and manipulated by the same corrupt credit rating agencies that fraudulently kept providing triple AAA’s to Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns as their toxic derivatives sent an entire country – not to mention Western civilization — into despair.

Hmmm…

Everybody lies. And, for the most part, most of us would too if it comes down to who benefits – them or us. I mean, businessmen will claim that what they do is for the public good, but you know they’re just doing it for their personal greed.

And it’s done, mostly, all over the world in the same manner, way and means – give or take.

The point is that if all you expect from people is disappointment, how can you ever be disappointed? And most of us have got to wonder how it is we cannot be disappointed in ourselves. Which no doubt keeps the booze and drugs flowing.

What really is saddening is that we are such cheap f-ks. And always were. It all comes down to the same 30 pieces of silver — which scholars have determined that in today’s money amounts to somewhere between $90 to $3,000.

Hmm… obviously, ‘cheap’ ain’t just a marshmallow Easter candy.

Or do I mean, Peeps?

Whatever. It doesn’t matter. The truth is we are all greedy in our DNA. We feel a sense of entitlement. And we hate to be inconvenienced – particularly with inconvenient truths. You know: Deny, deny, deny – until you settle out of court, without admitting your guilt.

And if you’re still surprised that we live in a world where our service leaders are worried more about their stock and dividends than they are about service, then you must be swallowing too many corporate slogans. Like at Wells Fargo where they promise the customer ‘comes’ first.

Yeah… but only in porno movies.

But was it good for you, too?

Hmm…

Meanwhile, there is one last point to note. Most of the information about Wells Fargo and United and duh rest of the ‘who’s-sorry-now’ corporate disasters, was brought to us via information — from long investigations by major newspapers, and snapshots by social media.

It is too soon to tell if these incidents of abject malfeasance will give rise to a movement to reform and regulate these de facto monopolies; or, if these episodes were simply the latest shimmering objects to catch the public’s attention.

But the real problem seems to be the uncivilized way we treat each other in general. If we can do this to a random person on a plane, or to a hallowed personal bank account, how far are we from being able to fatally screw each other over nothing?

It makes us appear as if we really are less than human and more like sheep… nonchalantly munching away, ignoring the wolf munching down on the ewe right next to us.

Our political ‘leaders’ do nada, no matter what federal committees they’re on. Only after they read-all-about-it, or hear the news about what they should have been doing, do they come charging down like the cavalry to assault the wounded.

But only, of course, if the TV cameras are rolling.

Think about that next time the Gallup Poll surveys you about who do you trust. And try to remember that a good leader, as well as a good follower, takes a little more than his share of the blame, and a little less than his share of the credit.

Hmm…

And dats yDrewIS on dis penal colony…

]]>https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/plans-are-wasted-but-planning-is-everything-and-in-a-troubled-world-where-we-are-paying-more-but-getting-less-we-are-pissed-but-the-real-problem-is-we-are-lying-hypocrites-we-feel-entitled-we-pr/feed/0distrunkOld age is like everything else — to make a success of it you’ve got to start young. The real sadness of ‘old’ age isn’t that you change so much, it’s that you change so little… Hmm… It is said that a man is as old as he feels and a woman is as old as she looks. Well, this weekend I’m gonna find out…https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/old-age-is-like-everything-else-to-make-a-success-of-it-youve-got-to-start-young-the-real-sadness-of-old-age-isnt-that-you-change-so-much-its-that-you/
https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/old-age-is-like-everything-else-to-make-a-success-of-it-youve-got-to-start-young-the-real-sadness-of-old-age-isnt-that-you-change-so-much-its-that-you/#respondThu, 06 Apr 2017 02:31:38 +0000http://ydrewis.wordpress.com/?p=1646Continue reading →]]>I received a summons to North Carolina the other week. It’s for a reunion and state awards ceremony this coming weekend at UNC in Chapel Hill involving some folks I practically started out with in journalism. Back when we were young… and invigorated… and full of self-prophesy.

And it has caused me to be feeling my age – which is way past that tropism that 40 is the old age of youth… and 50 is the youth of old age. Because now that I’m steeped into my 60s I can only swear that I am going to live forever – or die trying.

Hmmm… pretty soon my age will probably catch up to my diminished IQ. Or, as a friend was ribbing me with yesterday: ‘Those enlargement pills must be working. Because now you are twice the dick you were last week.’

In other words, lately I have been not only feeling old… but also crotchety. Especially because recently I was trying to do two counterintuitive things at once: think and walk. And tortuously reinjured my knee slipping down my steep wooden steps.

It’s an old ‘war’ wound from college intramural sports. And then it got more than a tad exacerbated from that bullet badly grazing my knee when I stumbled into a religious war years back in West Africa.

So life progresses. From wounds to scars to heart bypasses to my last ex-wife trying to poison me.

Really!

She insanely told the perplexed docs I tried to commit suicide. But of course! And then I made the docs laugh when I jokingly responded: I must be like that convicted felon who is given a choice, by the court, of which way to die – electric chair, gas chamber, hanging… or to be injected with the deadly AIDS virus. And he chooses the injection. And when the guard is taking him away asks why? That is, why would you choose the most heinous, egregious, painful way to die? And the felon smirks: I’m safe. I’ll be wearing a condom.

Hmm… old age really is like a shipwreck… don’t you think? Sinking… eroding… from a young gift of nature to an old work of art. Needless to say that in our youth we run into difficulties. In old age difficulties run into us. Particularly venal, vapid, vicious ex-wives.

But I’m sure I deserved it. And perhaps that’s one of my many problems – everything is a grand adventure that turns into a joke.

Yet through all that the real sadness of ‘older’ age is not that I’ve changed so much, it’s that I’ve changed so little. Like most of the rest of you.

Obviously.

And now I am limping painfully… with a cane. And my doctor told me the same thing he told me nearly 15 years ago: I need an operation. And I told him again: I ain’t getting transgendered. I actually said something about me being pusillanimous, which I thought was about the same thing.

Hmm… And no matter how youthful we dress and try to act, the fact remains that we all die in pieces. And another piece of me is apparently dying.

Even worse was that enticing woman I met the other night in that new beer brewery which recently opened just a few doors down from me in South Philadelphia. And the more beer we consumed the better we looked to one another.

She’s been tooting the clarinet for the Detroit Symphony the last 10 years. And comes to Philadelphia annually to get her woodwind overhauled. Philly, especially with its internationally acclaimed Curtis Music Institute, has long been a global workshop for this.

As she so informed me.

And in our continuing random conversation I also learned that her father, ‘a successful scientist but failed businessman’ had found a young, mail-order Russian bride. And decided that since he didn’t have much going for him here, relocated to Russia with his newlywed arm-candy and her 9-year-old son.

Hmm… Now why does that seem just grand to me?

Anyway, after 40 minutes of dis-and-dat I was about to suggest we continue conducting our symphony back at my place. But just as I stood up from my barstool my damn left knee decided to orchestrate some virtue… and collapsed. And down I went like a wounded duck, quacking and flapping on the cement floor.

And then this woman – I think her name was Shannon – in attempting to assist, ended up patronizing me – almost like I was her damn grandfather.

But of course! Her grandfather! And our ‘mood’ diminished and died like Viagra after 4 hours. So she paid her bar bill and, basically, fled.

And I slowly limped my way home.

And now I am about to limp down to North Carolina to drink, eat, make a wonderful ass of myself and gaze upon all those age-lines of regrets etched into the faces of former cohorts. Indeed, the closing years of life are like a masquerade party when the masks drop away. I just wonder if I’ll look as old to them as they will to me.

Probably not. Simply because I don’t have many regrets.

Hmm… I mean, life is just life… right? The party doesn’t end until the Russian vodka meets political correctness.

Oy!

I think my only real lament is that I still haven’t quite created a fully-satisfying surfeit of mischief. After all, you can only be young once, but you can immature forever.

So I’m planning to stop off in Richmond, Va., to see an old ex. She’s living with one of my best ex friends from high school whose own wife became an ex after she caught him with my ex. And then there’s another old ex in Chapel Hill, who’s married to my best ex-friend from Carolina. And they have been x-ing me outta their lives the last 35 years.

Hmm… If you’re counting all those X’s without the O’s you’ll understand why my game plan has always had so many illustrious pitfalls — it’s always been poorly designed and a tad offensive. Then again people do get offended so easily. So I ain’t apologizing. Because they obviously can’t take a joke. And a good joke’s gotta offend somebody… eh?

Hey, you’re never too old to be younger. That is if you’ve kept your sense of humor.

So, here I am, packing my bag and mandated dress suit and tie to trek down and confirm something I already know: That once you are over the hill… you pick up speed.

In a way I’m excited, I mean, even politicians, ugly buildings and whores get respectable if they get old enough. And like I already said: Old age is like everything else; to make a success of it you’ve got to start young.

And I did…

And dats yDrewIS on dis penal colony…

]]>https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/old-age-is-like-everything-else-to-make-a-success-of-it-youve-got-to-start-young-the-real-sadness-of-old-age-isnt-that-you-change-so-much-its-that-you/feed/0distrunkNews Flash: The good wolf and the evil wolf engaged in a mortal battle to the death. Day and night they ripped and tore at each other’s flesh. Hmm… This is not a fake news story. Just like Trump is President and you’re not… Soooo, guess who won?https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/news-flash-the-good-wolf-and-the-evil-wolf-engaged-in-a-mortal-battle-to-the-death-day-and-night-they-ripped-and-tore-at-each-others-flesh-hmm-this-is-not-a-fake-news-story-just/
https://ydrewis.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/news-flash-the-good-wolf-and-the-evil-wolf-engaged-in-a-mortal-battle-to-the-death-day-and-night-they-ripped-and-tore-at-each-others-flesh-hmm-this-is-not-a-fake-news-story-just/#respondMon, 27 Mar 2017 19:46:20 +0000http://ydrewis.wordpress.com/?p=1615Continue reading →]]>Maybe it didn’t quite happen that way… But this is just the way I remember it.

During a beer break from the storm of Trump’s denials — of any Russian connections, as well as everybody but Trump’s denial of any Obama wiretaps, and the Congressional denial of Trump’s alternate healthcare plan — this tallish, dark, gaunt guy with long, black, stringy hair and black rim glasses clumped into Grumpy’s corner bar…

And he was scowling.

I don’t think Tommy meant anything by it. He’s just one of those intense human raptors who thinks he’s got life figured out. But just can’t figure out – sometimes — how to pay his rent… not to mention his healthcare premiums.

And Joe, the fellow perched on the stool beside me, who’s overly protective of his big-breasted, songbird girlfriend, regularly warbling during this karaoke night, poked me with one of his fleshy elbows. And then he nodded his way towards the sullen Tommy.

And while I may have momentarily mis-thought that Joe was about to lend some nourishing insight into the furrows of the Tommy’s gloomy character — as well as the forlorn of the ‘popular-voters’ of the country — Joe dispelled that misconception quicker than a Trump Twitter tantrum.

After all, this was Grumpy’s, where most of the intellectual stimulation among the steroid muscles and sagging tattooed breasts, consists of counting along with Big Bird. And definitely not exercising its minimum patriotic duty – that is getting their cellulite butts off their barstools… and voting.

Hmm… Then again, neither did 47 percent of the rest of the country’s eligible electorate.

Anyhow, so Joe, whose mental gerbil has been known to sleep-at-the-wheel, said to me:

“That’s the kind of arm-length tattoo I wanna get.”

But of course! North Korea’s launching missiles, and Joe’s launching another tattoo!

Hmm… Talk about denial. By the way, have you ever noticed that drinking makes such fools of people? And people are such fools to begin with that it’s compounding a felony. Then again when I’m not sober I like all g-d’s creatures… I just like some better when they’re stuffed…

Now to me, tattoos are nothing more than bumper stickers for the body. Admittedly they can make a corpse better looking. Which goes along with my conviction that most folks are merely corpses — having died by age 25, but somehow manage to hang around to 75 to get buried.

That is just after one last afternoon of 3 more football games and 8 bags of Doritos.

Nevertheless, just because I don’t have any vainglorious tattoos adorning my pallid, aging torso doesn’t mean I’m not amazed by them now and then. Like with that German woman in Berlin I told you about a few years back. She had a large “W” tattooed on the inside of each of her luscious thighs. You know, up there close to the putting green. And when you went down for a closer survey of the lay of the land it gloriously spelled: “W-O-W!”

Now there was a tattoo that makes a man putt for dough.

Hmm…

Anyway, I asked Tommy, whom I discovered enjoys nattering about how he’s been spending his life overcoming childhood, to show me his tattoos. They were half-covered by his half-rolled up sleeves. And without a second of preponderance, he whittled himself down to his muscle-man t-shirt – without duh muscles.

Hmm… And these are undoubtedly the guys, like Keith Richards, who are most likely to survive a nuclear holocaust.

In the dim light I couldn’t quite make out the potpourri on his left arm. But on his right, from his shoulder to a few inches from his wrist was a large wondrous wolf baying at the moon.

At that Tommy posed: “You do know the story of the two wolves, don’t you?”

Tommy didn’t pause for an answer… except to wonder if I was buying him another pitcher of beer. Any beer. I don’t think he’s ever found a beer he doesn’t like.

Hmm…

And then his story unfolded about how this elderly Apache chief was telling his youthful grandson about these two great wolves. One represented all the evil, ignominy, sinister, pernicious malevolence in the world. And the other symbolized all the goodness, altruism, mercy and grace.

And one night the two lofty wolves engaged in mortal combat. Their battle raged for days and nights… and more days and nights. Up the Dakotas, and down the Rockies. Fur flew. Blood spilled. Bones were crunched.

Finally the wide-eyed Apache grandson implored his grandfather to tell him who ultimately won.

The grandfather smiled shrewdly, and simply replied: ‘The one you feed.’

Hmm… No shit! Tommy’s dark eyes sort of smiled. And so did mine.

Tommy searched my appreciative face as he repeated: “The one you feed… the one you nourish…” Apparently he didn’t bother to search Joe’s puzzled mug. I swear there’s a ‘For Rent’ sign hanging on his forehead.

Anyway, I smiled in wondrous approbation. I mean, at first I had smugly figured: That’s a pretty complex thought for someone who probably has to write ‘L’ and ‘R’ on the bottom of his shoes. But then, of course, it’s well known that sometimes it’s the very people who no one imagines anything of, who do and say the very things no one can imagine.

But of course!

Perhaps I should repeat that – and often. In other words, I know I can be an effete snob. But I have learned that if you hold a person like me underwater long enough, I stop being an asshole.

Which sort of brings me to The Donald… He be duh President even if he didn’t win Mister Popularity. And it’s no secret that in my drain-em, kill-em and definitely don’t let-em propagate mode I definitely voted for The Donald the old-fashion, Philadelphia way – twice.

And this, of course, has made me the butt of some less-than-good-natured ribbing from some of my erstwhile journalist cohorts. They wonder if my brain is still under warranty. And, naturally, I wonder if they, like Dr. Bruce Banner and The Hulk, were exposed to too many gamma rays when their supercilious Hillary experiment imploded.

Hmm…

And a day or two after Tommy and I quickly discovered that the more beer we drank the better we understood one another, some of these very journalists were poking me with: I’d like to know when it was in your life that you came to that fork in the road where reality was to the left… and you took a sharp right…

“I think it’s all going according to plan,” I said. “But like a Shakespearean play I wonder who’s going to be left to tell the story. In other words who’s going to be able to separate the ideology and the facts.”

“We are!” they practically harmonized like a barber shop quartet.

Oh, yeah, I countered. And if I drink enough you’ll start making sense. Sooo, I explained to them that Trump is a work-in-progress. As an outlier and businessman he’ll figure out how to make Washington work for him… and the rest of us.

And if he doesn’t, I continued, the country still wins. Look what’s happening: People are suddenly getting involved; Protests are raging; More women than ever are stepping up, and running for office; And I am certain that most of the 47% who didn’t vote last November will be voting next November.

For him, or against him, Trump has lit a bonfire up our asses. This is how a Republic is supposed to work. And if he does build ‘The Wall’ I hope he builds it out of solar panels. Then we could charge Mexico for the electricity it desperately needs in its hard-scrabbled areas…

“Hey, it’s the 60’s revolution happening 50 years later.” I then also noted: “It’s even working in Russia.”

They didn’t need to remind me that in the Trump-White-House that may have been an unfortunate reference.

“So you’re saying that any good that Trump may be doing is like reverse patriotism,” asserted Erik from USAToday.

Reverse. Upside down. Inside out. What-duh-hell, what-duh heck!

For 50 years the rich have gotten richer; the poor poorer. Our taxes have gone up. Our schools have gone down. More jobs have gone overseas, and less jobs have come home. This isn’t just what the Democrats or Republicans have done to us. This is what we have done to ourselves. We get the government we deserve… by watching too much football — and not voting.

“It’s like the bad wolf and good wolf waging war,” I said to Erik

“Oh, yeah, it all comes down to the one you feed.”

“You know the tale?” I was impressed.

Erik sniffed back: “Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.”

I don’t know what the heck Erik was talking about. It sounded he hadn’t had his after-work four beers, yet. Either that or he was quoting Mark Twain – again!

Sheesh, it just goes to show you, Trump may be on to something. Those ‘other’ journalists may think they know everything but they don’t know nuttin’ about ‘alternate truths.’ And maybe next time their ‘popular majority’ won’t take the once ‘silent (electoral college) majority’ for granted. For we all have needs – no matter what bathroom we use.

And, as an omniscient man who still imbibes like a journalist, I must admit that President Trump’s real troubles aren’t with the media, but with some of the ‘facts.’ And some more that may be soon forthcoming.

But to tell you the truth, that doesn’t really matter much to me. Because, like I said of Tommy: It’s well known that sometimes it’s the very people who no one imagines anything of, who do and say the very things no one can imagine.

Which is why I voted for The Donald in the first place.

Hmm… If I have offended your sense and sensibilities… all I can say is: Get over it! And if I haven’t, I’ll keep on trying.